Quote:
Originally Posted by varione  <snip>
Not that these don't cost money.....your original point stands, companies do typically make some money off of shipping. Nonetheless, mouser/digikey are not warehouses in the typical sense.
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No, actually - most companies take a loss from shipping and make it up elsewhere.
No one wants to pay what it really costs to package and ship an item. There's just a psychology at play that develops because of many factors. That psychology has been on display in this very thread.
One reason is that very few people are really aware how much it really costs to ship a package. Many fail to calculate incidentals such as the boxes, packing filler/cushioning, tape, labels, forms, stamps (as in "fragile"), printing costs, etc., etc., etc. Ebay has also caused a lot of this psychology to develop. There are definitely some sellers who price their shipping to make an additional profit on the sale. This breeds distrust from many customers that spills over into regular retailers who don't do this. Then there are fuel costs that have regularly ratcheted up over the last few years. Almost everyone is able to remember what they "think" shipping should cost from a few years ago, but it's several years out-of-date in comparison to new fuel costs.
Most companies recognize this and try to hold down costs directly attributed to shipping as much as they can, but those costs have to be accounted for somewhere.
